East Germany’s Doll and Weidemann were substituted on in both matches. Weidemann replaced Sammer in both matches.

-This was Austria’s first and only victory over East Germany.

-The previous match between the nations in the same stadium was also a World Cup Qualifier on September 24, 1977 that ended in a one-one tie.

Austria’s Manager Josef Hickersberger played in that match.

-East Germany’s only win was a World Cup Qualifier in Leipzig on October 31, 1965 that they won 1-0.

-Unified Germany played Austria in a friendly to scoreless tie on November 18, 1992 in Nürnberg.

Former East Germans Doll and Kirsten played in that match, as did Austria’s

Zsak, Polster, Artner, Pfeifenberger, Herzog and Ogris.

Photo : from Onze-Mondial, April 1990

(Toni Polster scoring from the spot)

-Unified Germany defeated Austria 1-5 in a friendly on June 2, 1994 in Vienna.

Polster scored for Austria on a penalty kick. Sammer scored one of Germany’s goals.

-Austria qualified for the World Cup Finals from this group along with group winner USSR. This group also contained East Germany, Turkey and Iceland.

-This was Austria’s first ever qualification for the World Cup Finals, as well as its first qualification of any kind, since the 1982 World Cup.

-This was East Germany’s first match since the fall of the Berlin wall, just a week before.

East Germany with no chance of qualifying had obviously other things in their mind.

This was also East Germany’s last ever competitive International before re-unification.

-Stahmann fouled Keglevits in the box for Austria’s penalty kick in the 21st minute.

-On July 17, 1989, Eduard Geyer was appointed as East Germany manager, after the dismissal of Manfred Zapf.

-This World Cup Qualification campaign was one of East Germany’s poorest in years. They lost 4 matches, including twice to Turkey.

-This was East German Captain, Ronald Kreer last cap and he was sent off.

Dirk Stahmann and Matthias Döschner also played their last matches for East Germany.

-Thomas Doll subbed in before halftime as East Germany was already 0-2 down and in disarray.

Photo from: Onze-Mondial, Hors Serie 3, 1990

-Austria’s Andreas Herzog was substituted off, 3 minutes after coming on as a substitute, after he was fouled when he took a shot.

-Rico Steinman and Toni Polster were teammates at German Bundesliga’s FC Koln in the 1990s.

Polster also played at Bundesliga’s Borussia Moenchengladbach.

-Toni Polster was the only foreign-based player in either team. He played in Spain’s Sevilla. He became the second highest goalscorer in Spain that season.

-Andreas Herzog and Heimo Pfeiffenberger both played in German Bundesliga’s Werder Bremen. Herzog also played one season at Bayern Munich (1995/96).

Herzog won the Bundesliga title with Werder in 1992/93 season.

Photo from: Onze-Mondial, Hors Serie 3, 1990

(Hat Trick hero Toni Polster in action)

-Austria’s previous captain Heribert Weber had been recently cut from the team after he had refused a positional switch.

Herbert Prohaska had retired at the end of the previous season. They were the last two survivors of the 1978 and 1982 World Cup squads.

-Austria’s Zsak had been appointed as Captain for this match following the axing of Heribert Weber. By next year, Toni Polster was appointed as Austria’s Captain.

-Austria’s other high scoring forward Gerhard Rodax did not play in this match.

Regulars Kurt Russ and Michael Streiter also were not included.

-Austria’s Klaus Lindenberger, Manfred Linzmaier and Alfred Hörtnagel won the League title with Swarovski Tirol of Innsbruck that season.

-In the second half of the season Andreas Thom joined West Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen. Ulf Kirsten joined him the following season and stayed there until the end of his career in 2003.

-Matthias Sammer also joined Bundesliga’s VfB Stuttgart in the following season and joined Borussia Dortmund in 1993. He won Bundesliga titles with Stuttgart and Dortmund and managed Dortmund to a Bundesliga title in 2002.

He is the current Sport Director of Bayern Munich.

-Sammer, Kirsten, Doll and Thom were integrated in the unified German National team by the following year.

-East Germany’s Detlef Schössler, Matthias Döschner, Matthias Sammer, Jörg Stübner and Ulf Kirsten were East German champions with Dynamo Dresden that season. The previous season they had reached the semi-Finals of the UEFA Cup.